Nostalgia
by ParrillaStans
Summary: Regina and Emma marry three years after they save Storybrooke and save Henry from Neverland. 7 years on, they give in to a bit of rememberance of times past. Not my initial idea, but a text post on Tumblr. I do not own ONCE or any of its characters.


Nostalgia

'How do you fancy a day out?'

Emma's taking big spoonfuls of her god-awful cereal, while Regina was looking at her iPad, wondering what to do for the day. Emma looks up as Regina asks the question.

'Out where?' Emma says, her face contorting in confusion.

'Just Storybrooke, you idiot. I'm not saying we drive to Boston,' Regina says, chuckling.

'What do you wanna do?' Emma replies, getting up and putting her bowl in the sink. She's about to walk away when she turns around and sees Regina deadpanning her.

'You gonna wash that up?' Regina asks, smirking slightly. Emma huffs and gets a dishcloth, running the bowl under the cold water.

'Oh my god, are you ever going to learn to use the hot faucet?' Regina says, standing up and going over to Emma, wrapping her hands around her wife's waist from behind.

Emma holds her chin up defiantly. 'No, I'm not,' she says with finality, putting the washed bowl in the rack next to the sink. She turns around and puts her hand around her wife's neck.

'You'll never learn,' Regina laughs, pecking her wife on the lips once, and then going back in for a second time. She's about to pull away when Emma pulls her closer, and leans her forehead against her wife's.

'I know. Anyway, what do you want to do?' She asks, before kissing Regina's nose softly. Regina smiles before pulling away and walking back over to her seat.

'I thought, maybe, we could just have a wonder. I've lived in this town for 38 years, and I still haven't just wondered around,' she says, pondering a whole day around Storybrooke.

'Sounds perfect,' Emma replies. She runs upstairs to change, but not before pressing a hard kiss to her wife's hair. Regina giggles in spite of herself, and then stops abruptly.

'I don't giggle,' she whispers into dead space, a confused look gracing her features as she follows Emma to get changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's getting close to lunchtime when they're out at the docks.

'Hey, do you remember that bench?'

'What?'

They're walking hand in hand through the docks. They had passed the Cannery earlier, quickening their pace a little. It wasn't a pleasant place for either of them to remember.

'You were sitting on that bench, in your childish cross legged fashion,' Regina says, bumping against Emma's hip, making both of them chuckle. 'And you were reading the book. You were reading about your parents.'

'Of course, I remember now. When you said '_you're hiding something, and whatever it is I'll find out,'_ in that really low, freaky voice which used to scare the crap outta me,' she replies, chuckling lightly at the memory. They stop in the middle of the walkway, and then Emma gives Regina a cheeky look.

'What are you –'

Emma runs over to the two benches, jumps over the back of one and lands on the seat itself. She jumps from one to the other, before reaching her hand out to Regina, who is laughing openly at the childlike behaviour of her wife. She smiles devilishly, and ignores the hand to copy her wife's move of jumping over the back of the bench. Emma's eyes widen slightly.

'Would you look at that? I'm more flexible than I thought,' Regina says, more to herself than anyone else. She steps from one bench to the other, and then takes out her phone. She flips through the playlists. She picks a song, and when Emma hears it she laughs joyfully and gets Regina to put her phone back in her pocket, amplifying the sound from the speaker. She holds out her hands, and Regina takes them with a cheeky smile.

_It's time to begin, isn't it?_

_I get a little bit bigger but then, I'll admit,_

_I'm just the same as I was,_

_Now don't you understand?_

_I'm never changing who I am_

They dance around the benches, and on top of them, doing silly little jigs that anybody watching would think only a 6 year old was capable of. But they're happy. That's one thing anybody seeing this cannot deny.

Once the song finishes, Emma sits roughly on the bench that Regina once occupied, those 10 years ago. Regina sits sideways on her lap. She looks down at her wife, who's looking up at her in complete awe. Emma cannot even fathom the idea of letting her go now, not 10 years after their deaths were so close. They saved the town, and more importantly, each other. Regina just gives an emotion-filled smile, leaning down and hugging her wife's neck while Emma wraps her arms tightly around Regina's waist.

_I always run, _Emma thinks to herself as she clings to Regina solidly. _But now, looking back, when I saw you on that doorstep, and you said Goodbye to me with your goddamn authoritative voice, I knew I'd found my reason to stay. Deep down, I'd made my decision then. _ She closes her eyes and holds tighter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Hey, Granny branched out and opened that new Mexican place near the harbour, do you wanna have lunch there?'

They're walking up to the harbour now, the Jolly Roger in plain sight ahead of them.

'Mexican? As in burritos?' Regina chuckles softly, as she can tell that Emma knows Regina wouldn't choose such an exotic type of food.

'Yes, dear, Burritos, Enchiladas, Fajitas,' Regina says, ticking them off with her fingers. 'Tacos.'

Emma's eyes widen, and she lets out an involuntary snort at the mention of the Mexican ailment.

Regina looks around Emma, who is rapidly dissolving into a fit of giggles.

'Have I said something that amuses you darling?'

'Don't worry,' Emma says, her voice high from laughter.

'Ah ah ah,' Regina replies immediately. 'Come on, spill,' she says, jabbing Emma in the side a couple of times. Emma slaps her hand away and laughs again.

'Okay, okay, but you're gonna either laugh or be disgusted,' she says, wincing.

'Okay, so,' Emma starts, her voice still thick with laughter. 'When Mary-Margaret and I got back from the Enchanted Forest and we had that party, Henry wanted to make something for it so, we bought some taco shells that were on sale at the store,' Emma explains. 'We got back to the apartment, and Henry in all his glory waltzed into the house, not really caring who was in or not, and I started rambling about how tacos were on sale,' Emma said, and she squeezes her eyes closed as she starts to laugh.

'Come on, this is the good part!' Regina says, wanting to know what happened.

'We'd walked in on David and Mary-Margaret!' Emma starts to laugh uncontrollably, and Regina is confused for a minute. But then, she gets it.

'No you didn't!' Regina squeals, and then promptly bursts into her own fit of laughter.

'Yeah, we did!' Emma says putting her hands on her knees while still laughing.

'Hang on,' Regina says, her smile dissipating somewhat. 'Henry was 11.'

'Yep,' Emma replies, looking up at Regina.

'He walked in on his GRANDPARENTS having sex, and he was 11?!'

'Yeah! It was awful. I just sent him off to the kitchenette to start unpacking the groceries, and I was like, whisper shouting at them that they should have sent a text or something. They said nothing, and I couldn't think of anything to say but one thing.'

'One thing.'

'Yep.'

'And, pray tell, what did you say?' Emma gets up, and she tries to act out her reaction to walking in on her parents.

'I'm – I'm gonna go make some tacos,' Emma says in the awkward fashion she had said it ten years ago.

Regina snorts involuntarily and starts giggling ucontrollably.

'What?' Emma asks, then dissolving into her own laughter once again.

'I'm gonna go make some tacos? REALLY?'

'Really,' Emma said, her voice high with laughter again as she started to calm down a bit.

'And that, Emma Swan, is one of the many reasons why I love you,' Regina says matter-of-factly, wrapping her arm around Emma's waist and snuggling into her side.

'What reason's that?'

'The one where you just cannot deal with awkward situations without making an utter fool of yourself,' Regina says, pecking her wife's cheek as they head to the Mexican at the Harbour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking away from the harbour, Regina turns back and looks at it, for a minute. Emma stops when she feels Regina's hand slipping out of hers because she's not walking in step with her, and turn back to stand beside her wife.

'It holds so many memories for us, doesn't it?' Regina breathes, looking over at it. She closes her eyes and a tear slips down her face. Emma wipes it away, and then goes back to her original position beside Regina, and grasps her hand, looking at the place where so many things, good and bad, had happened in such a short space of time.

'You know, I never thought,' Regina starts, but pauses, looking down at the two rings on her ring finger. She sniffs once before continuing: 'That I would become so attached to this town. I thought I'd just live forever, stuck in time, knowing I'd be alone and hate it forever. But then you came along and you severed the time loop. You saved me from a life of loneliness,' Regina says, her voice cracking. Emma looks at her wife's face, which is now sad and forlorn.

'The Harbour's not our spot though, is it Regina?'

Regina looks at her, and she doesn't even think Emma had ever put so much significance on the place she means.

'Come on,' Emma says quietly, and pulls at Regina's hand gently. They walk over to Emma's bug and drive the five minutes to the entrance of their special place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma walks through the mines carefully, not wanting to twist her ankle on the unused cart tracks. Regina follows closely behind her, their hands intertwined and they reach the place where they had stood 10 years ago.

They stand side by side and they see the small Black Diamond, which is still lying, inactive on the rock Regina left it on. Emma rubs an arm with her other hand and Regina crosses her arms, and they both look around the desolate mine, more dimly lit than last time they were here.

Emma bumps her shoulder against her wife's, who loses her balance a little and stumbles. She throws Emma a playful glare, smiling slightly afterwards.

'Come here,' Emma whispers.

Regina smiles more widely now, and wraps her arms around Emma's neck, hugging the woman to her tightly. Emma wraps her arms around her waist, and nuzzles into Regina's neck.

They pull back enough to see each other's faces, and Regina notices Emma's eyes are slightly shiny with unshed tears. She strokes the woman's cheek softly, and then places her arms back in their original position, pulling Emma's face to hers.

Their lips meet in a soft, loving kiss, which Emma deepens slightly a few seconds in. She runs her tongue across Regina's lips, silently asking for entrance, which Regina accepts immediately. Their tongues meet and Regina smiles slightly into the kiss. They are completely content as their tongues are moving in what seems like an almost perfectly choreographed dance.

It is only when they part for air that they see the spark that ignites throughout the tunnels. Every light has brightened immensely, blue and purple glittering from every lamp and every bulb in the mine.

'Well, true love is the most powerful magic of all,' Regina says, laughing lightly before pulling Emma in for another earth-shattering kiss.

* * *

_**Reviews are very much appreciated! **_


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